Save Our Park Board

05/23/2026

Both the VPD and Ken Sim owe Vancouver residents an apology for putting public safety at risk and spreading misinformation.

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Police won’t patrol Vancouver beaches this summer: VPD

The Vancouver Police Department says officers will not patrol any of the city’s beaches this summer.

Const. Megan Lui says police will respond to calls from beaches, but after funding cuts to the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, they will not actively patrol.

The partnership saw officers cruise Vancouver beaches on ATVs, on foot, and on bicycles.

Earlier this month, the Park Board confirmed it would continue providing lifeguard services at nine outdoor beaches this summer, after budget cuts threatened service at five of them.

Lui confirmed that the VPD Marine Unit will continue to patrol deep waters.

Mayor questions Park Board’s priorities; Park Board demands apology

In a statement to 1130 NewsRadio, Mayor Ken Sim says the news raises “serious questions” about the Park Board’s priorities.

He says the city supports alcohol consumption on beaches, and that must also come with “adequate resources” to keep people safe.

Sim asked, “Now, that funding has reportedly disappeared, and Vancouverites are left asking: where exactly is the Park Ranger program at, and who is going to be responsible for keeping these spaces safe?”

“Vancouverites deserve transparency and accountability about how these decisions are being made. Residents expect common sense. If Vancouverites are enjoying a beer or a wine on the beach, public safety considerations must remain a priority.”

Chair Tom Digby says the Park Board is “incredibly outraged” that the VPD would make what he calls a “completely unfounded assertion.”

“We have never committed to funding the VPD for their own job obligations to maintain public safety across the city,” said Digby.

“In the past two previous summers, we were forced to pay an extra $430,000 per summer so that the police would supervise the beaches — actually police the Vancouver beaches. We were outraged that it was demanded that we should pay this. We were forced to pay it.”

He says the VPD did not make its annual demand in the budget cycle, which began in October 2025, this year. Digby says the board accepted that as an indication that the VPD would be “too embarrassed” to demand another $430,000, given that it was the only city department not subject to budget cuts.

“The Park Board is not responsible for policing services on our beach. It’s up to the police. And it is an absolute outrage that the police would assert this. And what’s equally an outrage — and perhaps more of an outrage — is that the mayor is choosing to double down in his war against the Park Board and somehow blame us for the fact that we do not have $430,000 extra to fund his police department.”

Digby says he’s confident that park rangers can continue to maintain the peace on city beaches “by and large.”

“It was actually the police department themselves that was causing immense problems last summer with their ridiculous beach sweeps at 10:01 p.m., where they were kicking off high school students and regular people that were just enjoying the beach at sunset,” said Digby.

“And so the police came on over-policing, wearing bulletproof vests and carrying guns on our beaches was completely excessive.”

He says Sim and Police Chief Steve Rai should retract the assertion that the Park Board is to blame for the lack of patrols and apologize.

“The mayor refused to fund lifeguard services on our beaches, told us to find cuts. Just earlier this week, he demanded that we make free swimming lessons across the city without providing any budget compensation for that. And now he’s blaming us for not funding his police department that he already gave an extra $50 million to this year,” Digby listed.

“I expect full apologies from both of those organizations immediately.”

04/28/2026

The non-ABC Commissioners are fulfilling their mandate. And the ABC Commissioners should be ashamed for doing Ken's bidding. But it's not surprising given they tried to help Ken dismantle the Park Board.

Prioritizing capital projects is and always has been the jurisdiction of the Park Board. Whether Council chooses to allocate funding is a separate issue. The ranked list of community centres they put forward was the result of analysis done in collaboration between Park Board staff, ALL the community centres associations and REFM. There's been no political interference by Commissioners. Juxtapose that to the highly partisan, cherry picking process by Ken & ABC Councillors. Is it a coincidence that the majority of the community centres Ken Sim picked were in polls that ABC did well in during the last election? I wonder 🤔

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Vancouver park board commissioner tells mayor and council to mind their own business

Emergency motion urging the city to leave park commissioners and staff to set priorities passes by a narrow 4-3 vote

By stepping into the decision-making process on much-needed community centre and park facility upgrades, Vancouver city council is overstepping its mandate and undermining the park board.

That’s the gist of an emergency motion introduced Monday evening by park board commissioner Laura Christensen that ultimately passed by a narrow 4-3 vote.

City council’s standing committee on finance and services met last week and approved a motion by Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung that pushed for a bigger vision for Vancouver’s aging, undersized recreational facilities in the city’s four-year capital plan for 2027-2030.

“For too long, critical investments in core infrastructure and community facilities have not kept pace with the needs of a growing city, contributing to mounting infrastructure pressures and service gaps now facing residents,” said Kirby-Yung’s motion.

It said the city hasn’t built an indoor public pool since 2011 and the number of ice rinks in Vancouver hasn’t increased since 1976, while other municipalities have moved ahead with major new multi-use recreation facilities. It urges council to approve upgrades, renovations and construction of new facilities including community centres, parks, spray parks and pools.

Christensen argues all of that is the park board’s job, and the motion urged the city to leave park commissioners and staff to set priorities.

“It is unprecedented that council has directed allocation of funding for assets under park board jurisdiction prior to and without park board’s approval,” the motion claims.

It calls for $20,000 to retain a lawyer to determine the park board’s jurisdiction under the long-standing Vancouver Charter, which gives the park board “exclusive possession of, and exclusive jurisdiction and control of all areas designated as permanent public parks and temporary public parks.”

Commissioners Jas Virdi and Angela Haer questioned whether the motion would jeopardize Mayor Ken Sim’s recent commitment to give $400 million to upgrade five of the city’s community centres.

“I hope you’re not making this political,” said Haer.

Christensen countered that it was a question of “equity” and continuing to focus on the plans developed over many years by the park board and staff — rather than allowing council to steer the ship without following the guidance of the park board, possibly for political reasons rather than strategic ones.

“I think that this is exactly park board doing its job by following its plans and strategies and not allowing city council to step in and direct where funding is going,” said Christensen.

While “appreciative” of the $400 million commitment, Christensen pointed out that it should be the park board that directs how it’s spent, based on community input.

Commissioner Brennan Bastyovanszky agreed the motion reasserts the park board’s role as a “check and balance” against political interference from council in how parks are run.

Bastyovanszky and Christensen were joined by commissioners Tom Digby and Scott Jensen voting in favour of the motion, while Virdi, Haer and commissioner Marie-Claire Howard opposed it. It passed on a 4-3 vote.

04/21/2026

On April 7th, a special Park Board meeting was held to vote on a $1.4B Capital Plan motion for 2027-2030. The approved motion committed to: renewal of Britannia Community Centre & pool; $50M towards biodiversity restoration; $250M towards new aquatic facilities such as Kits pool and a 50M pool, and $400M towards the rebuilding of community Centres. Over 60 speakers from across the city and different organizations spoke overwhelmingly in favour of the motion. The Community Centre Strategy which was developed in partnership with all the community centre associations identified Hastings, Kensington and Renfrew and the top priorities for new facilities.

Tomorrow (April 22), City Council will be hearing a motion regarding priorities for recreation facilities for the Capital Plan 2027-30. While we applaud this motion’s $400M commitment towards community centre renewal, it ranks Roundhouse, Kerrisdale and Dunbar as higher priority than Hastings and Kensington. It omits Renfrew altogether. This motion appears to be devoid of objective, evidence-based criteria and neither the community centres associations nor the Park Board were consulted. The Council motion is ambiguous regarding Council’s commitment to the Kits Pool renewal, a new 50m pool, and Britannia renewal. It also appears to relocate Marpole’s new pool to Sunset Community Centre. It’s hard to regard the Council Motion as anything other than political interference and favouritism by Mayor Ken Sim and ABC in the lead up to the October municipal election.

Please sign up and state your objections to the ABC motion and encourage Council to support the recommendations approved unanimously by the Park Board and the Community Centre Associations. Register to speak to Motion 3 (deadline 5pm today).

03/23/2026

Vancouver Park Board considering $1B motion to fix aging recreation facilities.
Commisioners say the historic investment is needed to address chronic underfunding by the city

Karin Larsen · CBC News · Posted: Mar 20, 2026 6:00 AM PDT | Last Updated: March 20, 2026

The Vancouver Park Board is set to introduce a motion calling for a historic investment into the city’s aging recreational facilities of approximately $1 billion, CBC News has learned.

The motion is being brought forward by board chair and commissioner Tom Digby, who called the special park board meeting for April 7 where it will be discussed with the public.

Digby said the final dollar figure attached to the motion is still under discussion.

"It’s true there is definitely more than $1 billion worth of capital improvements that the park system and the recreation centres could all use," he said. "The fact is we only have a role where we take our requests up to city council. And then city council will make the final decision."

Is a new Vancouver Canucks training facility coming to East Vancouver?

In a report released last year, Vancouver’s auditor general said that 72 per cent of the city's 24 community centres, 14 pools and eight indoor rinks were in "poor or very poor condition," with an infrastructure deficit of $33 million per year.

The report by Mike Macdonell said the facilities, which are owned by the city and co-maintained by park board and city departments, "were not effectively managed," with little or no co-ordination to address the problems.

Former park board chair Aaron Jasper says the time is right for board to be drawing attention to "historic underfunding" from the city.

Vancouverites 'shortchanged'

"This ask, if in fact it’s in that $1 billion range, is an acknowledgment that for far too long, the City of Vancouver has neglected to properly maintain our cherished park board facilities. And really, Vancouver residents have been shortchanged," said Jasper, who served as a commissioner from 2008 to 2014.

"The choice really is a stark one. It's either pay now, renew and upgrade facilities, or residents across our city, many of them are going to be facing the reality of their beloved facilities shutting down in the next few years."

Commissioner Scott Jensen says while the $1 billion figure is "aspirational," it serves to inform the 2027-2030 capital plan and beyond, especially with the upcoming municipal election only seven months away.

"We're looking at where our priorities need to be and how we can best serve Vancouverites," said Jensen.

"We've run on this promise to invest in our infrastructure and we have some significant infrastructural needs. We also have a lot of partnerships that are popping up that we would like to leverage so we can be able to get a bigger bang for our buck."

Watchdog group alleges senior city staff 'tampered' with Vancouver Aquatic Centre renewal project

One example is the recent report that the Vancouver Canucks and City of Vancouver are close to announcing some sort of agreement that could see the team build a practice facility at the aging Britannia ice rink and community centre site in East Vancouver.

The Canucks are owned by the Aquilini family, who are developers.

"The Canucks opportunity with Britannia is really interesting for us and could have a lot of potential," said Digby.

"There’s been a number of facilities that were proposed by developers that did not come through," he said. "For example, the north False Creek community centre and skating rink ... and a community centre in East Fraser Lands that was supposed to be built by Wesgroup."

According to City of Vancouver documents, the company that proposed a community centre on north False Creek was Canadian Metropolitan Properties Corp.

Digby said bringing partners on board to help fund projects is a way of lessening the taxpayer burden.

Major capital projects expected to be on the table in the near future include the renewal of the crumbling Kitsilano outdoor pool and construction of a promised 50-metre indoor pool.

The finalized motion for the April 7 special park board meeting is expected to be released by the end of next week.

Corrections
A previous version of this story said Concord Pacific was the company interested in developing a community centre and skating rink on north False Creek. In fact, the company was Canadian Metropolitan Properties Corp.

11/22/2025

This past week, I was one of over 600 residents who signed up to speak to the proposed cuts in the City's 2026 budget. With only three minutes allowed, I focused on what the impact of $15M worth of cuts would be on Park Board operations. I also shared my thoughts on the flawed process through which the cuts were being proposed.

It was inspiring to listen to all the people share their personal stories and concern for their fellow residents. For many, it was the first time they had ever spoken to Council. It was also heartbreaking to hear the fear many had about how the cuts would harm them, their families and neighbours. The vast majority of us spoke strongly against the cuts. I hope that at least one or two ABC councillors were moved by the pleas of hundreds of Vancouver residents. If we're lucky, maybe the majority of Council will follow staff's recomendation and residents' feedback and approve a modest tax increase to protect vital services and programs.

11/03/2025

Media Advisory

Special Park Board Meeting to address 2026 Budget Cuts

Nov 4, 630pm
Park Board Office - 2099 Beach Ave, Vancouver, B.C. (Nov 2, 2025)

The Vancouver Park Board has announced it will hold a Special Meeting on Tuesday, November 4, 2025, at 6:30 pm to hear directly from the public, including residents, community centre associations, and partners, regarding the City's proposed 2026 budget cuts that could significantly impact parks and recreation services across the city.

https://parkboardmeetings.vancouver.ca/2025/20251104S/MOTION-ParkBoardResponseto2026BudgetReductions-20251104.pdf

The Mayor’s proposed “Zero Means Zero” 2026 Operating Budget includes $120 million in city-wide cuts, with $15 million assigned to the Park Board, even though it represents only 7.9% of the city’s overall budget.

The proposed reductions could affect community centre programs, pool and washroom hours, park and field maintenance, and other essential services.

“These budget decisions will have a disproportionate effect on everyday park and recreation services in Vancouver. People want their services funded and City Hall needs to rebalance its budget,” said Commissioner Bastyovanszky.

The Park Board has released information outlining the scale and severity of the proposed cuts and their potential impact on livability in Vancouver.

The Special Meeting invites residents to speak directly to elected officials about what these reckless cuts mean for the parks and recreation systems they expect and rely on. This follows a motion moved by Commissioner Brennan Bastyovanszky and seconded by Commissioner Digby titled Park Board Response to 2026 Budget Reductions.

Brennan Bastyovanszky
Park Board Commissioner - Vice Chair

10/28/2025

Rob Shaw: VANCOUVER PARK BOARD DRAMA SHOWS HOW BAD THINGS HAVE GOTTEN WITH NDP:
NDP’s messy handling of the issue signals a deeper breakdown between the province and city

There’s a chill in the air in Vancouver these days, and it’s not just from the fall weather. The relationship between the city and BC NDP government has reached unusually frosty levels.

The latest temperature drop came Monday when Housing Minister Christine Boyle abruptly announced she was scrapping legislation to let Mayor Ken Sim eliminate the city’s park board.

“The city has more work to do clarifying their intended direction,” Boyle proclaimed late in the day on social media.

Vancouver officials were furious.

The city had already waited more than two years for Premier David Eby to agree to crack open the Vancouver Charter. Eby kept dismissing the issue of eliminating the province’s only municipal park board as unimportant.

Boyle then threw a curveball into the final bill, requiring a referendum on the park board’s future before Sim’s ABC majority party could act. After the mayor complained publicly, Boyle went further, yanking back the entire bill and pinning the blame on Vancouver.

“The province failed to consult with local First Nations and the City of Vancouver ahead of the introduction of this legislation in its current form,” Sim replied to the minister on social media.

“Our position has been clear all along. It’s the responsibility of the minister to properly engage on her own legislation.”

Caught in the middle are local First Nations, who say they haven’t been kept in the loop on the ongoing back-and-forth, legislation or amendments between the city and province.

This is not how provincial legislation usually works. It is, comparatively speaking, a gong show.

All eyes are on Boyle over how the situation has devolved. She used to sit on Vancouver council and spar with Sim as a member of an opposing party. Now, a year later, she’s a provincial cabinet minister with the power to make his life difficult.

Is she exacting revenge? It’s an open question, as the file tilted sideways in unusually combative ways over the last month.

Sim has said the city wasn’t consulted about the province’s legislation before it was tabled Oct. 9. That’s surprising considering the bill only affects one municipality, and is in response to Vancouver’s very specific request. But New Democrats appeared to take a ‘we know better’ approach to drafting, plunking the bill down onto the floor of the house on a random day, sight unseen from Vancouver.

Inside the bill was a line that would have allowed future city councils to transfer park land to First Nations with a unanimous council vote and not a referendum.

Sim’s officials spent several days trying to get Boyle’s officials to remove the line. Boyle ultimately refused. So Sim went public with a statement saying he would not support the bill. And then within 24 hours the premier reversed course to say he’d take the line out.

“We’ve done our best to bring it forward and to meet the various and sundry requests of the mayor and council, as well as the administration of the City of Vancouver,” said Eby, skipping over two years of delays and a crafted-in-secret drafting approach.

“If he doesn’t want that section in the bill, that’s okay with me.”

New Democrats blamed the city for wanting the First Nations line in the first place, producing an email from Vancouver’s former chief administrative officer that indicated the city would support such a move. The city countered by saying council never voted to endorse that approach. And so it went.

It’s clear, at this point, the working relationship between the NDP government and the City of Vancouver is at its lowest point in a decade. We haven’t seen a public spat like this since ex-New Democrat-turned-mayor Gregor Robertson and Liberal premier Christy Clark duked it out over housing and social policies.

What’s less clear is who benefits.

Does the Eby administration have a mayoral candidate it intends to back against Sim in next year’s election? Is Eby’s office out to jam Sim to make him look ineffectual to voters? Is this mostly Boyle exacting revenge against Sim for a year on council in which they clashed? Is Sim picking a fight with the province to bolster his own election chances?

Whatever this is, it’s a mess.

And now next year’s municipal election in Vancouver will be dominated by the park board issue. For better or for worse.

Rob Shaw has spent more than 17 years covering B.C. politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for The Orca/BIV. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on CBC Radio.

[email protected]

10/28/2025

Out of the mouths of…. Journalists.
“Whatever this is, it’s a mess….And now next year’s municipal election in Vancouver will be dominated by the park board issue. For better or for worse.”

Oh, we plan on it. 🎤🫳

https://www.biv.com/news/commentary/rob-shaw-vancouver-park-board-drama-shows-how-bad-things-have-gotten-with-ndp-11408194

HEADLINE: Vancouver park board drama shows how bad things have gotten with NDP

NDP’s messy handling of the issue signals a deeper breakdown between the province and city

There’s a chill in the air in Vancouver these days, and it’s not just from the fall weather. The relationship between the city and BC NDP government has reached unusually frosty levels.

The latest temperature drop came Monday when Housing Minister Christine Boyle abruptly announced she was scrapping legislation to let Mayor Ken Sim eliminate the city’s park board.

“The city has more work to do clarifying their intended direction,” Boyle proclaimed late in the day on social media.

Vancouver officials were furious.

The city had already waited more than two years for Premier David Eby to agree to crack open the Vancouver Charter. Eby kept dismissing the issue of eliminating the province’s only municipal park board as unimportant.

Boyle then threw a curveball into the final bill, requiring a referendum on the park board’s future before Sim’s ABC majority party could act. After the mayor complained publicly, Boyle went further, yanking back the entire bill and pinning the blame on Vancouver.

“The province failed to consult with local First Nations and the City of Vancouver ahead of the introduction of this legislation in its current form,” Sim replied to the minister on social media.

“Our position has been clear all along. It’s the responsibility of the minister to properly engage on her own legislation.”

Caught in the middle are local First Nations, who say they haven’t been kept in the loop on the ongoing back-and-forth, legislation or amendments between the city and province.

This is not how provincial legislation usually works. It is, comparatively speaking, a gong show.

All eyes are on Boyle over how the situation has devolved. She used to sit on Vancouver council and spar with Sim as a member of an opposing party. Now, a year later, she’s a provincial cabinet minister with the power to make his life difficult.

Is she exacting revenge? It’s an open question, as the file tilted sideways in unusually combative ways over the last month.

Sim has said the city wasn’t consulted about the province’s legislation before it was tabled Oct. 9. That’s surprising considering the bill only affects one municipality, and is in response to Vancouver’s very specific request. But New Democrats appeared to take a ‘we know better’ approach to drafting, plunking the bill down onto the floor of the house on a random day, sight unseen from Vancouver.

Inside the bill was a line that would have allowed future city councils to transfer park land to First Nations with a unanimous council vote and not a referendum.

Sim’s officials spent several days trying to get Boyle’s officials to remove the line. Boyle ultimately refused. So Sim went public with a statement saying he would not support the bill. And then within 24 hours the premier reversed course to say he’d take the line out.

“We’ve done our best to bring it forward and to meet the various and sundry requests of the mayor and council, as well as the administration of the City of Vancouver,” said Eby, skipping over two years of delays and a crafted-in-secret drafting approach.

“If he doesn’t want that section in the bill, that’s okay with me.”

New Democrats blamed the city for wanting the First Nations line in the first place, producing an email from Vancouver’s former chief administrative officer that indicated the city would support such a move. The city countered by saying council never voted to endorse that approach. And so it went.

It’s clear, at this point, the working relationship between the NDP government and the City of Vancouver is at its lowest point in a decade. We haven’t seen a public spat like this since ex-New Democrat-turned-mayor Gregor Robertson and Liberal premier Christy Clark duked it out over housing and social policies.

What’s less clear is who benefits.

Does the Eby administration have a mayoral candidate it intends to back against Sim in next year’s election? Is Eby’s office out to jam Sim to make him look ineffectual to voters? Is this mostly Boyle exacting revenge against Sim for a year on council in which they clashed? Is Sim picking a fight with the province to bolster his own election chances?

Whatever this is, it’s a mess.

And now next year’s municipal election in Vancouver will be dominated by the park board issue. For better or for worse.

Rob Shaw has spent more than 17 years covering B.C. politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for The Orca/BIV. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on CBC Radio.

NDP’s messy handling of the issue signals a deeper breakdown between the province and city

10/28/2025

Thank you Minister Boyle!

10/26/2025

Last week I did an interview on the Early Edition with Stephen Quinn to discuss the future of the elected Park Board. Make no mistake, without the Park Board our parks and recreation services are at risk. We're the envy of the world because we have an independent Park Board. Vancouver residents need to reject Ken Sim's cuts and demand that he fully fund Park Board operations.